Tag: var-current

Generate your own random fantasy maps

Martin O’Leary not only made a cool fantasy map generator , he’s giving away the source code and has described the process at a high enough level for an idiot like me to partly understand how it works. I wanted to make maps that look like something you’d find at the back of one of the cheap paperback fantasy novels of my youth. I always had a fascination with these imagined worlds, which were often much more interesting than whatever luke-warm sub-Tolkien tale they were attached to. At the same time, I wanted to play with terrain generation with a physical basis. There are loads of articles on the internet which describe terrain generation, and they almost all use some variation on a fractal noise approach, either directly (by adding layers of noise functions), or indirectly (e.g. through midpoint displacement). These methods produce lots of fine detail, but the large-scale structure always looks a bit off. Features are attached in random ways, with no thought to the processes which form landscapes. I wanted to try something a little bit different. It’s an odd feeling to look at these instantly-generated, detailed maps and realize that they represent nothing. I feel like I’m being wasteful pressing the “Generate high resolution map.” The Uncharted Atlas is a twitterbot that posts a new map every hour.

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Generate your own random fantasy maps

Mystery magic spells, etched on gold, unearthed in Serbia

Buried nearly 2,000 years ago in Serbia, rolls of gold and silver etched with “magic spells” are baffling archaologists. Reuters reports on a “Middle Eastern mystery” unearthed at the site of an ancient Roman city. “We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria,” archaeologist Ilija Dankovic said at the dig, as more skeletons from the 4th century A.D. were being uncovered. The fragile, golden and silver scrolls – which once unrolled look like rectangles of foil similar in size to a sweet wrapper – may never be fully understood. They are the first such items discovered in Serbia but resemble amulets of “binding magic” found in other countries, Dankovic said. Very Pazuzu , isn’t it?

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Mystery magic spells, etched on gold, unearthed in Serbia

American Bar Association votes to DRM the law, put it behind a EULA

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, “I just got back from the big debate on is free law like free beer that has been brewing for months at the American Bar Association over the question of who gets to read public safety codes and on what terms.” (more…)

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American Bar Association votes to DRM the law, put it behind a EULA

Return of Dieselgate: 3 more hidden programs found in VW Audi/Porsche firmware

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag says that US investigators have discovered three more hidden cheat apps in a Volkswagen product line: these ones were discovered in 3-liter Audi diesels. (more…)

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Return of Dieselgate: 3 more hidden programs found in VW Audi/Porsche firmware

Electronic temporary tattoo measures how drunk you are

University of California San Diego nanoengineers developed a flexible, wearable sensor that measures the blood alcohol level of its wearer and transmits the info to a mobile device. From UCSD News : The device consists of a temporary tattoo—which sticks to the skin, induces sweat and electrochemically detects the alcohol level—and a portable flexible electronic circuit board, which is connected to the tattoo by a magnet and can communicate the information to a mobile device via Bluetooth. The device could be integrated with a car’s alcohol ignition interlocks, or friends could use it to check up on each other before handing over the car keys, he added. “When you’re out at a party or at a bar, this sensor could send alerts to your phone to let you know how much you’ve been drinking,” said Jayoung Kim, a materials science and engineering PhD student. ” Noninvasive Alcohol Monitoring Using a Wearable Tattoo-Based Iontophoretic-Biosensing System ” (ACS Sensors)

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Electronic temporary tattoo measures how drunk you are

1 billion computer monitors vulnerable to undetectable firmware attacks

A team led by Ang Cui ( previously ) — the guy who showed how he could take over your LAN by sending a print-job to your printer — have presented research at Defcon, showing that malware on your computer can poison your monitor’s firmware, creating nearly undetectable malware implants that can trick users by displaying fake information, and spy on the information being sent to the screen. (more…)

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1 billion computer monitors vulnerable to undetectable firmware attacks

Silicon Valley banks offer tech giants’ new hires 100% mortgages on 24 hours’ notice

What to do if you’ve just signed up to work in one of the most expensive real-estate markets in the world, with almost all of your net worth tied up in illiquid shares in your employer’s company? Just ask a Silicon Valley bank for a 100% mortgage, which they’ll cheerfully supply on 24 hours’ notice, with all the “white-glove service” trappings you could ask for. (more…)

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Silicon Valley banks offer tech giants’ new hires 100% mortgages on 24 hours’ notice

Iraq stops using $60,000 dowsing rods for bomb detection

After the July 3 suicide bomb that killed 300 people in Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi banned the use of the ADE 651. a fake bomb detector made by British fraudsters, who claimed the gadgets could detect bombs, ivory, drugs, and golf balls. The Iraqi military had purchased $60 million worth of the bogus devices. The founder of the company that made the useless devices is in prison serving a ten-year sentence. I think he should spend a lot more time than that behind bars, since a great many people died by putting their trust in the devices. ABC News Faced with mounting criticism, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the effectiveness of the devices in 2010. The outcome was inconclusive, and they continued to be used. The head of the Interior Ministry’s bomb squad department, Jihad al-Jabri, was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison for accepting a bribe from the British manufacturers. But the case against him did not address whether the wands were effective. Many Iraqis believe he was a scapegoat to protect more senior Iraqi officials from prosecution. Politics also may have played a role. After the July 3 blast, al-Abadi fired the military officer in charge of Baghdad’s security and accepted the resignation of Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, who was in charge of police.

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Iraq stops using $60,000 dowsing rods for bomb detection

Porsche screws up

Legendary automaker Porsche may have mistakenly swapped two screws in its 918 Spyder hybrid-hypercar’s seat belt system. Thinking of the customer, Porsche has voluntarily recalled their $850k practical, about town race car. Via Autoevolution : A mistake in the original parts catalog for the Porsche 918 Spyder has led to a recall of the hybrid hypercard. Porsche 918 SpyderAccording to Porsche, the printed document unwittingly transposed the locations for the screws which tighten the seat belt mount and the belt reel mount. Since those screws are one-time-use only, and are also not the same, technicians who had to work on them might have unintentionally installed the wrong screw in the wrong position. Because of this mishap in the original parts catalog, which has since been corrected, there is a risk of some Porsche 918 Spyder models having wrong screws fitted to their seatbelt mounts and seat belt reel mounts.

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Porsche screws up